Ascended

Game Updates ranging from earliest to latest

2012 February

* ID/name search added to logs.
* Ability to turn off quick attack buttons in the change details/preferences.
* page jump added to relations pages .
* Experience bar added to demis to gauge how far away they are from upgrading.
* More abilities (rare) available to find for demi-gods. The demi-god mechanics are being reviewed, small changes ensue.
* Clicking the 'equip selected' button in the demi-gods page, WITHOUT any demi-gods selected, will un-equip every demi-god now.

2012 January

-------=== The Era of Demi-Gods! ===------

On your journey through realms and galaxies, during battles, wars, reconnaissance, God Questing, Descending and such, many races watch and some people measure, at your skill or speed, and even the honor wrought during the event.
Some entities (half gods if you will) search for people, to aid them in their quest, or for a home, for a master, or purely by nature or what 'God wills'.

I'll attempt to explain it to allow the new users to grasp the concept faster, and further divulge in a bit of detail and probability for people who want to know things...
* The term Demi-God can include anything from a half ascended entity, to a very strong or intellectual person.
* Each Demi-God has an ability and a disadvantage, there are numerous abilities, some are very powerful, some are tactical, some are what you probably would expect, and some are something you would have never anticipated.
* Demi-Gods will find you, in any battle (attack to a destroy military to an ascended attack), they are more likely to have an ability in the surroundings you use, e.g you are
more likely to find a Demi-God with an increase in attack, when you are attacking than what you would be God Questing.
* Demi-Gods have two other imperitive things, a tier level and a skill level, tier's designate how powerful the Demi-God is (and therefore rarity, coloured coded with their alias/name as well)
and skill level indicates how knowledgeable a Demi-God is; after you have had the Demi-God in your possession for sometime you will be presented with the option in buying
better equipment and stores of knowledge for them (upgrade skill level), which in turn increases their ability, but only slightly, albeit permananently. Mind you this will also increase their disadvantage.
* Demi-Gods cannot be taken away from you unless you remove them from your presence (or otherwise said in another update).
* When a Demi-God wants to join you, they will send you a request via the ingame PM system.
* You can view, remove, and see requests in the Demi-God page.
* You can only choose your equipped Demi-Gods once every day, you can equip only 3.
* You can only choose 6 Demi's to be in constant contact with.
* You can only have a maximum of 6 Demi requests, anymore and no Demi will send you one.
* Requests will be removed by the Demi after 3 days with no warning.
* Requests can stop being received via the ingame PM by going to "change details/preferences" in the realm page, and turning it off from there.
* Occasionally there will be a Demi-God who decides to merc themselves out in cosmic trade, an auctioning system has been set up to accomodate this.
* Occasionally there will be a Demi-God who chooses they want an arena match, an arena will be set up whereby you win by destroying all other participants defences (or designated action).
* Due to the nature of repulsion between objects from parallel universes, having a Demi-God will repel all parallel versions of it, until you get rid of it you have no chance of finding another,
with or without a better tier or skill set.
* Also because of the raw nature of parallel universes, you might come across a Demi with the same name, but different Tier level or ability set, although some Demi-Gods have a semi-permanent role in
universe (you could call it pivitol) and as such they only have 1 set of abilities, these ones have the rarest of abilities.

Probabilities, details, I'll shove them in points for an easy read.
* Obviously, the higher the tier the harder it is to find.
* The more lucrative the ability, the harder it is to find. (as of time of development there were 14 different skills each with their own disadvantage, which can increase at any time)
* Some abilities may require you to do something first, or you may only be able to get them one way.
* Some abilities only have a possibilty to be gained if the demi was chosen to be at a certain tier level.
* Arena's, auctions etc, don't guarantee you will be the only person to have that Demi-God, or skill set, however some warning may be given if the Demi will be 'one of a kind'.
* The framework of the idea is largely durable, things can change easily and I'm quite sure they will.
* You will be penalised (in tier form) if you are up against an action that is significantly smaller than yours, e.g if you have a 80 quad attack and go for someone who has a defence of 10 quad,
you may still find a Demi, but the max tier it could possibly be may only be tier 1.
* Infact you will have to have a set action to be able to have a chance to gain a Demi-God with a certain tier level. e.g 20 q attack may only let you have a possibility to gain a max tier 2.
* At of this moment in time, typing the updates right now ( a few days before I assume this will launch) there are roughly over 30,000 calculated permutations/combinations of Demi-Gods and skill sets.
Mind you that number is purely for ones that you could encounter while attacking etc. Opening up the full set there are about 40,000 possible combinations, and it will grow soon.
-----===============-----------

* the most hostile people in the top 10, has been changed, it will calculate hostility based around how many turns is used as well now.
* checkbox was added when converting turns to a name change so users dont hit the button 'by accident' wink wink nudge nudge.
* you can now see the relations of another person towards you in the stats page.
* quick attack buttons now co-exist with is, namely recon, attack and destroy military, each using maximal amounts.
* costs for weapons are adjusted to a more reasonable and 'real' amount.
* 1/5th, 5x rule bugs are now cleared.
* you can now god quest people you are at peace with.
* due to the increase in weapon cost, the attack multiplier has been disabled for now, although it still may be altered and used.

2011 December

* On the realm summary page: cosmetic fixes were applied, mostly formatting numbers.
* Introspection page: Ascended Resurrections saved, was a mysterious concept, it is now removed from sight until needed. More cosmetic fixes followed, multiple boldings, decimal additions to percentages and "life force level" renamed to "Maximum Natural Energy Capacity" to follow some consistency with words (stop a bit of confusion for newer players).
* Powerup page: Multiples added to ease off the button mashing.
* Sidebar: It has been cleaned, and a link to the personal log has been added below the message inbox link.
* When spying or GQ'ing, the numbers are more pleasant to the eyes.
* Command Star has now consistent numbers in battle, commandstar page, and on the realm summary.
* Command Star page has had a few textbox size increase when buying attack and defence.
* Removed non-active (vac'ed etc) accounts from cosmos, although they can still be searched manually.
* Added two new ranks, God Offensive Capacity and God Diversion Power they are NOT included in the overall rank.
* Doubled turn holdings to 4k
* Increased the AP -> life force conversion rate to make it more worthwhile.
* Increased 'Destroy' so it's more effective at killing planets (per x turns).
* Increased 'Destroy Military' turns needed to 20, as well as increasing the offender's death rate slightly to allow for a more balanced (and not overpowered) function.
* Allowed for a purchase of a name change via cosmic trade.
* Allowed for a race change via preferences.
* NEW LOGIN SCREEN! Durable and web 2.0, the looks may change over time...
* Top 10 Rankings (accessible top left of any page bar login), you have the ability to keep your fame a secret or look prestigous, if you want to be known go to the 'change account details/preferences' at the bottom right of the 'realm' navigation menu section, tick the box and confirm. By default everyone is **Anonymous**.
* The planet 'cap' where your CER peaks before it slowly decays, is now 3 billion (up from 2), decay calculations remain the same however.

2011

* Turns given to 11 per 30minutes. (up from 10).
* Personal ascended attack -> if the attacker loses ALL their life force, and then some (where some = 2xtheir life force. so you need to lose all LF, all reserve AND 2xFL more to descend self.), they descend themselves!! For 2 days....no kills awarded.
* Added a check on being to being attacks, to ensure total offensive capacity (TOC) is at least 10% of the target potential. Below this and you are not fit to battle them. At the very least this stops accidental self-descension.
The above 2 items were introduced (or reinstated actually, in a way) to stop attackers from tying up potential attackers with pointless/no chance of success battles. If you take on a monster, you may get eaten.
* Added a peronal log to record your godly thoughts and such.
* Undeveloped planets now produce minimal income (1% of an income production planet)
* Lower ranked players do not generate additional turns per turn. It was fun while it lasted :) Everyone gets 10 turn/turn now.

* Considering doubling ToC moving the time between ascended on ascended attacks back to 3 hours.
* Set relations returns you to the players stat page, not your base.
* Added 'reset relations' option.
* Increased ascended attack power to formula: energyLifeForce * (1+ energyAttackPowerLevel/1000) * (1+ energyAttackPowerLevel/1000) * (1+ energyAttackSkillLevel/1000) * (1+ energyAttackSkillLevel/1000)
This effectively increases the TOC making it a *bit* easier to descend someone, without altering the time it takes to do so.

2010

* You can now attack another being each 2.5hours instead of 3 hours (ascended battle - god on god).
* You can now do a maximum of 2/5ths a beings life force reserve max, opposed to a 1/3rd before. (about 20% more possible damage)
* Command star power is multipied by your Physical Realm Attack Power and Physical Realm Defense Power. (well by level over 100)
* A descended realm in Ascension cannot re-ascend in main while descended.
* ToC is increased. It used to be: Life Force * ( Energy Attack Power Level/1000 * Energy Attack Power Level/1000 ) -- it is now that, multiplied by a further (Energy Attack Power Level/1000)

2008 ongoing - more fine tuning

* You can now only engage realms up to 5x your 'size' (planet counts), or 1/5th your size. This replaces the rank limitations, and the change is to eliminate the attack/drop ranks in order to become unattackable by the one you just attacked. Unless you remove your planets: if you can attack them, they can attack you....(excludes ascended attack, and spying...)
* The Cosmic Exploration, when above 2billion army size, still slows - but not by nearly as much before.
* Rank is now based 50% on planet counts/influence and 50% on other ranks (was 100% planet counts/influence).
* Rank mod on ascended attack is removed. Only the 'max damage' per hit cap, and maximum size difference to actually attack, remains ...
* Ascended Points per day increased, and continues to increase with time.
* Ascended Points conversion rate increased slightly, and will increase more quickly with time.
* Field sizes allowed in various pages are increased.

Oct 24, 2007 ongoing - fine tuning

* God Quest (spy on enemy god) now displays their Life Force Reserves, as well as life force. (from this point onwards - past recons will not show this value)
* The minimum time between ascended attacks has moved from 4 hours, to 3 hours. With the recovery rates as they are now, it was possible to recover more than the maximum damage one attack could do to you, within the 4 hour timeframe. (meaning you could never be descended because you recovered too quickly). The 3 hour limit should address that....
* Ascended Battles require you to have 10x the enemy defence, in offence. This allows you to neutralize their army completely, while you (the ascended being) can then enter the realm undisturbed. You will ONLY engage in an ascended battle with your enemy - the armies do not get involved.
In short - you need 10x the enemy defence to engage in an ascended battle, but armies do not come into play - it is pure one on one.

Sept 27, 2007

Large changes, server wide. Goal: Making ascension more actively playable/fun, re-balancing the server to support this. Ensuring continued focus and attention on ascension returns rewards not stripped away within minutes/days...
these are the 'broad brush' changes...i will try to provide the math/specifics over the next while...

HOW IT WILL LAUNCH

1) ascension server will get 10days PPT for everyone.
2) closing server now to do migration...
3) life force above max life force will get converted to cache.
4) everyone will get the AP of their last ascension, minimum of 100,000 and max of 5,000,000 -- the upper/lower limits are in place since ascensions could have taken place anytime over 2 years, and what it took to get 100,000 APP 2 years ago was far far greater relative to what 100k or even 500k would be a month ago...so the range of 100k to 5000k (50 times as much!) will be the min/max ... i believe this is fair.
UPDATE ON 4 - The minimum was changed to 900,000 (100k+800k as the update) --this is to further compensate for the 'worth' of resources in main, from 2 years ago to recently, as most of the early ascenders only got the minimum even though --for the time-- they ascended with a relatively large value.

WHAT WILL LAUNCH
1) the APP <> LF rate of aprox 1200 to 1 (growing daily) will go live. The 'growth per day' may change over time, but this is the initial and 'base' rate now.
2) Life Force will max at life force max. Above this, it goes into LF reserves. When reserves and life force are full, it goes into LF cache. This is true of DMU<>LF, life force gained per turn, LF from APP, etc...
3) Cache can be moved into reserves, or LF.
4) upgrades can be bought with cache & life force (not reserves) - with cache used first. LF only used if you are 'short' in your cache.
5) Rework of the cost of levels. (cheaper at lower levels, gets more expensive, exponentially, above 500.) No caps on most stats, no realistic caps on the rest...
6) Rework of the benefits of levels. They are not as 'powerful' as before, with a couple exceptions like charisma, production ...
7) Rework of the cost of fleets. Slightly reduced, and a new 'soft cap' causing fleets to get more expensive past 100k production.
8) When planet count gets to 2billion, the growth rate/discovered planet rate, drops...There is no ' big drop' at this level, but the further you get from the 2bil planet count, the more the 'dead planet finds' increase as a percent of the total finds...again this is just production/finds per turn and not existing planets.
9) Raid is gone.
10) SuperWeapon is gone.
11) Every active account generates APP each turn...
12) Turns can be traded for DMU (not the other way around).

CHANGES AFFECTING MAIN
1) No limit on number of ascensions/limit of 20 ascensions (not decided, but wont need to be for a while). They get much more expensive in UP minimum required at 10+.
2) The bonus of +1% per level above 5 remains....
3) Ascended accounts in vacation mode: the main account does not receive the bonus on income or attack (this is new). The bonus on def/covert and the ascended blessing remain at 1/2 strength. Weapons remain.
4) If you wish to DESCEND YOURSELF - ie 'quit ascension' .. you can. You will become a 'Daimon' - basicly a fallen divinity...This is the only race open to fallen ascendeds who chose their own demise...The bonuses are: whatever your ascended account was giving to your main account at the time of banishing yourself, MINUS the ascended blessing (so no unique tech to this race.) (for example if you were prior, you got 5% bonus on att/def/cov/income, and the ascended blessing, and new weapon valus. You keep all but the ascended blessing.) A Daimon DOES NOT GAIN GLORY and, in battle and covert, TAKES DOUBLE CASULAITIES -- basicly, they are living fast and dying fast :). From this race, you can choose a fully mortal race, or keep this race. No other options.
5) : Lifer suicide missions to kill enemy anti-covert in main. 5 lifers die to get 1 enemy AC. You must have 20% of their defence in attack to get your lifers close enough, but there is no 'fight' of armies... and your lifers will always succeed at the above rate...
6) ascension does not take your mothership, you do not gain APP for your mothership.

July 18, 2007

DMU to Life Force Conversion Rate
When a specific number of overall planets are reached, it becomes more expensive to get Life Force via DMU. That number is quite large - right now set to 700million. With that much of an empire to manage, your life force is spread over a wider area, making it more expensive, because it is less efficient, to infuse yourself with such power via the DMU.

June 20, 2007

Rank & Raid
Rank is now 100% based on influence action (number of planets and planet systems controlled).
Raid now ONLY takes undeveloped planets - NOT 'worker planets' as well. Also of note is that 'initiate revolution' has increased SLIGHTLY in how many planets will revolt.

Mar 12, 2007

Turn Rate
After complaints of the turn rate increase, specifically how it helps the big guys and only hurts those trying to catch up, I have taken a bold bold step, that can in no possible way be intrepreted as serving the needs of the big players. In fact, I risk offense on that front in this attempt, but will trial it regardless.
The ascended cosmos have the ascended equivalent of a black hole in the very core of their fabric of existence. It is a black hole, actually, but a higher dimensional black hole swallowing entire universes of lower dimensions..It is also a huge source of power, so the more powerful ascended beings naturally gravitate to it...
Now - the downside to this is that it affects the flow of time. It slows time down. Thus...The closer to the anomoly (ie the higher the rank) the less action turns are generated each turn. The further away, the more action turns are generated per turn.
This -ontop of some of the other more recent changes - should keep the Ascended realm more dynamic...at least that is the goal...
Ascended SuperWeapon Auction
As a response as the auction being used as a method to move funds between friendly accounts, the superweapon has taken offence to being used in such a way. Yes - it is sentient, self-aware, and likely even a lot smarter than much of the life in the cosmos. From this point forward, it is likely that selling the weapon will not return the same results as previously ... although exactly what will happen only the super weapon will know and determine....
Ascended on Ascended Attack
It was pointed out that a huge life force in defence, was not really contributing to the defence of the Ascended Being since the maximum that could be used was the max life force (and not the available or overage life force.) In response to this, the maximum that can be used in defence is 5x your life force IF YOU HAVE THE LIFE FORCE AVAILABLE!
The same holds true for attacking.

Mar 5, 2007

'Too Damaged' Limit - is still the same, although the rate at which damage counts decrease (per turn), has increased.
Turn rate doubled

Feb 15, 2007

DESCENSION:
This is now active. To descend someone you must attack their god directly, by yourself, as a god. You must first beat their physical defences (advisable to remove them before trying a personal attack on them!), and only then will you be able to assault them directly.
The concept is that life force is your max attack - which is then multiplied by your attack stats.
Their life force is their max defence - again multiplied by their defence stats.
Damage is done to each god, and this value removed from your life force AND RESERVES if it is greater than you life force. This is true for attacker and defender.
A maximum of 1/3 of their total reserves maximum can be destroyed each hit.
An ascended battle takes 4 realtime hours - so you cannot attack if you or they have/are battling (ie its been less than 4 hours since last battle.)
When reservers + life force is zero - they are descended.
Descended accounts cannot take any action on ascended for 14 days. Then get a 4 day protection to remedy their failures :). (this is the 'release' values. They may change over time, based on your feedback).
While descended, the main account gets no bonuses from the ascended account.

Vacation:
If your ascended account is in vacation, your main realm gets only 50% of the ascended bonuses.

Ascended Superweapon:
It is the most powerful weapon on this plane. It will decimate a gods realm. There is but one weapon in the entire realm. It can be obtained on the cosmic market IF someone is selling it, else it moves according to its own will amongst those on this plane.
Once acquired - it will stay but 48hours before dematerializing (or whatever higher dimensional word is the 4dimensional equal to that word...)
If you buy it, it must be used or lost. It will not stand to be regifted!!!
If it is used on a realm, it takes 30 days for its energy to dissipate enough that it will be effective once again in that timespace.

Input fields:
Most input fields are bigger. Some have 'quantity' input where they did not before. If any are missing, or should be bigger, use the forum to name the page & field.

Ranking & Rank Effects:
Your rank is determined 50% by your influence, and 50% by the combination of attack/defence/covert/assassin/commander star ranks.
A rank modifier is in place - in effect the energy it takes to travel to lower energy realms dissipates your energy, preventing you from using your full potential. If you 'attack up', you benefit from the additional energy in that realm, and can actually increase your own power. There are limits, of course, on how much energy you can gain or lose.
The 'energy' that affects your abilities is determined 50% by your total energy, and 50% by the activity you are engaging in.
Being almost omniscient, you will know ahead of time how the realm energy will affect you.

Ascended and Main Account Link:
If you use your covert to spy on the enemy god, you have a chance of also determining which main server realm worships that god.

Command Star:
Is 100 times more powerful than ever before.

Planet Exploring Fleets:
At a certain point, the cost of increasing this fleet size increases dramatically. As of this writing, less than a handful would notice this effect.

Tag Yourself:
You can add a 'tag' to your godly name, in the preferences area. It can be changed at any time. Misc:
yes, likely some misc too. Certainly additional security is in this misc, as are a few other minor items.

Things change. That is true in this realm, as it is in any other. Expect change. Embrace change. Adopt to change.

If you know the candle is fire then the meal was cooked a long time ago.

The reed that does not bend to the wind, breaks.

Don’t stand in the entrance
Don’t block up the vale
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is raging.

have fun!

Comments?

Use the Forum, 'Game Suggestions' catagory in the Ascended Hidden Forum (ask a moderator to allow you access, give them your game username for validation of ascension), to suggest new features, changes to current features, or even rebalancing of existing features if you feel they are too strong/weak/etc....